James Merritt - Rest Easy
Well, I wanna say again, good morning to all of you who are with us today. And I want you to be aware of something. I prepare my messages weeks ahead of time. I've been doing this for years. And so, I actually prepared this message, it's probably been six weeks ago since I prepared it. So I want you to keep that in mind because we're not trying to just move on from what's been going on in our country, we were well aware of it. But as a matter of fact it's good news that we are where we are today. And let me just begin by saying, I have to admit that when this quarantine, stay at home order, first hit, here's what I thought to myself. I thought, okay, I get some rest, I'll have a more leisurely pace, I can get some things I've not been able to, I can kind of slow down a little bit, I won't be traveling like traveling, and speaking like I speak.
Well, that dream wore off after about two days. And I'm gonna be honest, I think a lot of you are where I am. I'm tired. I'm tired of staying home. I'm tired of getting up every morning and realize that I was forced to stay at home. I'm tired of catching up. I'm actually tired of being busier than I've ever been. And I thought, maybe this is just me, maybe it's my imagination until I read this. "Using internal data, NordVPN found that the average work day has increased by almost 40% in the US or an extra three hours, which has Americans working 11-hour days. It is the largest increase in working hours in the world". That's happened since this pandemic.
And I don't know about you, but I get up early in the morning and I go to work. And because I'm there, I've got so much to do. And I just work all day, and I found myself working even after dinner and into the night. And frankly, you may feel like I do. I've never wanted a vacation more than a lot in my life. I've never wanted to get away more in my life. I've never wanted just to leave everything behind and just go decompress ever in my life. I need some rest and relaxation from the stress and the strain. And I imagine many of you say, "Yeah". Well, tell me about it. I've lost my job. Tell me about it. My job may not ever even come back. Tell me about it. I've got small kids, I've been schooling at home, and I get it.
And then I remembered something I want to remind you of. God is not quarantined. God doesn't stay at home. And this God is the God that came up with this whole idea of rest to begin with. And believe it or not, he wants us to rest every day, regardless of what's going on around us or behind us or even before us. When I decided to preach through the 23rd Psalm, and that's where we are, if you wanna get your Bibles, we're in the 23rd Psalm. When I decided to do this, I had no idea we would be where we are as a nation today but I can honestly tell you, I don't know of any word from God that's gonna be more appropriate week after week for all the things that we're facing. Then there's 23rd Psalm, we're calling it pitch perfect, because it's about how soothing to the nerves that music can be. And there's never been a more soothing song that has ever been written than the 23rd Psalm.
As a matter of fact, the more I read the Psalm, and the deeper I dig into the Psalm, the more buried treasure I find that I never thought of, I'd never seen before. I don't believe there's been anything that's ever been written or sung that is more needed today than the most famous Psalm in the Bible and the greatest song ever written. Matter of fact, somebody took the 23rd Psalm, and they rewrote it to describe the problems we face with stress and strain and work and worry. And yes, quarantines. You might find this interesting. "The clock is my dictator; I shall not rest. It makes me lie down only when exhausted; It leads me to deep depression. It hounds my soul; It leads me in circles of frenzy for activity sake; Even though I run frantically from task to task; I will never get it all done".
Book and I relate to that. "For by 'ideal' is with me; Deadlines and my need for approval, They drive me. They demand performance from me, Beyond the limits of my schedule. They anoint my head with migraines. My emails and text messages overflow; Surely fatigue and time pressure shall follow me all the days of my life; And I will dwell in the bonds of frustration Forever". Sounds just like a quarantine song. Sounds just like a shelter in place song. Can you relate to that? I mean, stress is robbing us of rest and the lack of rest is increasing our stress. And we seem to be caught in this vicious cycle of physical emotional and spiritual fatigue that never seems to end. I mean, are you like me? You wake up a lot of mornings and you keep hoping this has got to be a nightmare, This can't be happening. We can't be in the mess that we're in right now with all of the unrest and all of the agitation and all of the frustration.
And even though it may seem like things are starting to loosen up somewhat and thank God that they are. But it's like, there's this balloon that's tied to our belt. And every time you turn around, there it is. Well, here's the news for you today. There is a bridge over troubled waters. Is found in the 23rd Psalm, And here's the bridge. It's five words. "The Lord is my Shepherd". What a bridge over troubled waters. "The Lord is my Shepherd". And here's what this Shepherd, if you will follow him, if you'll surrender to him, if you'll serve him if you'll worship him, if you will love him, if you were live for him, if you will trust him, this is what the Shepherd promises to do for you. Listened to it. "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters".
Close your eyes just for a moment. Get that imagery in your mind. You're a sheep, you've been walking all day. You're tired, you're thirsty, you're hungry. And all of a sudden you're lying in thick green grass under the shade of a tree, beside the still waters of a stream. that's flowing right beside you. And all of a sudden, almost before you even realize what's happened, you're resting easy. All the chaos, all the consternation and all the concern all, around you, somehow you're resting easy. And here's the great news I want to share with you today. No matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you're going through, that green grass, those still waters are right in front of you. And you can enjoy them every single day of your life.
And when everything is going to hell in a hand basket, you can rest easy. Because in this beautiful stanza of this beautiful Psalm, we're told, if we follow the Shepherd, if he becomes our Shepherd, we will find the rest that we all desire and we all need. And here's what David is telling us in this Psalm about the Shepherd. He says, first of all, "My Shepherd guides me to rest". When you follow this Shepherd, where will he lead you? He will guide you to rest. That's very interesting. David says, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack, or I shall not want". Then he says, the first thing the Shepherd does for the sheep. Here's the first thing he does is, watch this. "He makes me lie down". That's kind of an interesting thing. That's kind of a strange thing. "He makes me lie down".
Now, why does a shepherd make sheet lie down? Well, you've got to understand something about sheep. Sheep begin to get up and they begin to feed and they begin to graze about four o'clock in the morning. And by 10 o'clock they're hot, they're tired, they're thirsty, but here's the problem. Sheep cannot drink while they're hot. And the reason is, they're filled with all this grass that they've eaten, that they haven't digested. So the shepherd's got to make them lie down and he's got to make them rest. You know why he has to make them do it? Because she don't like to lie down. Sheep are like children. I don't know about you, but I'll tell you about my experience. I've had three sons, four grandchildren and I'm seven for seven. None of them liked to take a nap. None of them want to take a nap. When they were small, every one of them hated to take a nap.
I read the other day where somebody said, the reason why policemen don't like children is because they're always resisting arrest. Okay, that's just a joke. Listen, a shepherd knows that the sheep need to lie down, they need peace and they need quiet. And what I find interesting, is the very first task the shepherd has to do for his sheep every single day, is to make that sheep lie down and rest. Now, let me just say, well, how does that relate to me? What do we normally do in the morning? When things are normal, let's take Monday morning. Everybody hates Monday mornings, work. And here's what we do. We get up, we take a shower, we get ready and we go to work. Then we work all day till we get tired. Then we come home, and what do we do? We rest. You know what this particular stand of this song tells us? We've got it all backwards. We're not supposed to work and then rest. The first thing God wants you to do in the morning is rest before you go to work.
Now you may be thinking, "Wait a minute, what do you think I've been doing all night? That's what I've been doing, I've been resting". Well, really you have it, not in a way I mean. You've been sleeping, but even that is physical rest, that's all it is. We're not talking about physical rest, I'm talking about spiritual rest. Spiritual rest, listen, spiritual rest is when you lie down in the presence of the Shepherd. And you just take time to be in the presence of the Shepherd. You just take time to enjoy fellowship with the Shepherd. You just take time to love on the Shepherd and let that Shepherd love on you. Now, I'm gonna say something that's gonna come as a shock. It may be even a disappointment and some of you may not like it, but it's true. God is much more concerned about your spiritual health than He is about your physical health or your financial health. And I'm not saying he's concerned about either one of those two things, but He is most concerned about your spiritual health.
You see, we need to rest before we work so we can whistle while we work. Rest always comes before work, and it's so important. I can relate to this. I read about a lady that Monday morning was trying to call her pastor, she called him all day long, couldn't get through to him. Well, the next day she called and yeah, finally she got through to him and she was really, really upset. And she said, "Pastor, I want you to know something". She said, "I called you all day yesterday and you didn't answer". And the pastor said, "Well, maam, Monday's my day off, and it's when I rest". She said, "Well, the devil doesn't take a day off". And the pastor said, "Trust me, if I don't take a day off, I'll be just like the devil".
Now that really is true. Rest has to come before work. Think about this, sheep don't eat when they're lying down, they don't graze while they're lying down. You know what they're doing when they lie down? They're chewing on what they've already eaten. They're resting and they're chewing, they're digesting. While they're lying down, they're taking all that grass they've taken in that hasn't yet made it to the digestive system and they're digesting their meals. And it is a critical time for the sheep to do that. Because here's what the shepherd knows. The wool grows the fastest, and their bodies grow the strongest, when they're just hanging out with the shepherd, when they're just resting with the shepherd.
See, one thing I want you to know about this Shepherd of ours, He knows what he's doing. And the reason why the Shepherd wants us to rest before we work, is he knows is in that resting time, is what we call this quiet time. Is in that time when you're just hanging out with the Shepherd, He knows, that's when you grow the fastest, that's when you get the strongest. When you just spend time in His presence, He said that'll happen more than anything else you do during the day. That's why when you get up, you know the first thing God wants you to do? He wants to make you lie down. He wants you to get into the green pastures. Now watch this. The key to this rest is not just that the shepherd makes the sheep lie down, it's where he makes the sheep lie down.
So David says this. He says, "My Shepherd grows me through rest". He guides me to rest, so he can grow me through rest. Now, the shepherd not only makes the sheep lie down, but he's got a really specific place he wants them to lie down. Where does He make us lie down? "He makes me lie down in green pastures". That again, you gotta be a shepherd to understand that. By the way, literally in the Hebrew language, that literally says, pastures have tender grass. He makes me lie down in pastures of tender grass. Now, what in the world was David talking about? Well, he was talking about the food of the sheet because that's what sheep eat, sheep eat grass. If they don't eat grass, they're gonna die. That's what they need to stay physically alive. Now our Shepherd, Jesus, has given us grass to eat.
You say, "Well, what is that grass"? I'm holding it. This is our green grass. This is our pasture, our tender grass. God has given us his word. I remember my mentor, Dr. Rogers, Adrian Rogers, used to say, "You know what the Bible is? Is the breakfast of champions". And it really is true. Nutritionists tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well, I don't believe that's just true physically, I believe that is true spiritually. And I would encourage you to begin a habit that I've had since I was a boy. Begin every single day of your life, even if you've got to get up 10 minutes early, begin every day of your life getting into the green pasture of God's word. You may not know this. We're told the Bible is not just a book that you read, the Bible is food that you eat.
The Prophet, Jeremiah said this. He said, "When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight". In another Psalm, as a matter of fact, the longest Psalm in this book, another songwriter said this, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth"! See, I tell young pastors this all the time. I love talking to young pastors and try to, in fact I was talking to one on the phone just the other day. And I was talking about his priorities in life. And we were talking about hiring staff people. And he said, "What do you tell new staff when you hire them"? I said, "I tell them six things". I'll just going to tell you the first three, I tell them. I said, "The first, the three things I tell my staff is this. I expect you to have three priorities in your life in this order, your personal walk with God, your relationship to your family and the church".
And then I always say this, the church is a distant third. And I said, "The reason why I say that is this. If you're not walking with God, and if you're not the husband or the wife you ought to be, and you're not the mom and dad you ought to be, you won't be the minister that God wants you to be and that I need you to be. But it's always first, number one priority is that walk with God". And I tell pastors this all the time. The first thing I do every day of my life, the first thing I do and I'm going to do is read my Bible. There's one thing, and I'm not saying this to brag, I'm just being honest. My wife's had been with me for 40 plus years, she'll tell you this is true.
There's one thing your pastor's gotta do. If I don't do anything else every day, I'm gonna read my Bible. I got up this morning, I'll read my Bible. I wasn't looking for a sermon. I wasn't trying to find an outline. I wasn't trying to find something to teach. I wanted to hear from God. I wanted God speak to me. I wanted to spent time in the presence of the Shepherd. I begin my day by letting the Lord do something. Make me lie down in the green pastures of His word. Now, think about this. If you're lying down on a bed of green grass, and you're lying beside a stream of flowing water, then there's one thing you know you're going to be surrounded by, okay? In fact, listen, you'll hear it. Quietness. When you're in that green grass, and you're beside those still waters, is quiet.
That's why for those of you who don't understand churchy language, what we call spending time with God, what we call reading God's word, what we call talking to God in prayer, what we call listening to God, we call that a quiet time. It's churchy language, but it's a good term. We call it a quiet time. And what David is saying is, "You'll always rest easy, when you're in the quietness of the Shepherd's presence". And the reason why David talks about green pastures is this, shepherds know some grass is inferior to other grass. For example, there's some grass that will make the sheep sick. I didn't know this, but there's a type of grass. That's called goatgrass. And if you're not careful, if they start eating goatgrass, it gives the sheet indigestion. But a good shepherd always leads the sheep to the best grass, he always leads them to green grass.
Now, I'm gonna quit preaching for a minute and I'm gonna meddle in your business for just a minute. So, please don't get upset with me, but I'm just going to be honest. If the shoe fits you wear it. You don't what's wrong with a lot of us, and you know why we are frustrated and we're angry. We don't handle bad things well, we don't handle bad news well. We act just like the wild dogs, when things go wrong, we worry, we fret, we walk the floor. We put God on the shelf. We don't really turn our focus on Him. Can I just be honest with you? Can I tell you why? Because we eat too much TV grass. We eat too much video game grass. We eat too much internet surfing grass. We eat too much social media grass. We too much Twitter, Instagram and Facebook grass.
And that's why we're not at rest. That's why we're restless. That's why we're not in quietness. That's why we're in chaos. And let me give you a great illustration that happened to me while I was working on this message several weeks ago. I got up one morning, and I battled this and I hope you do. I mean, I say, I hope you do. I hope you're like me, I hope I'm not abnormal. But there are times I just get up and you have to fight through what's going on, you need just to fight through it. Well, there's particular day I got up, and I'm normally a pretty positive person, but frankly I just, I got up with all these negative thoughts. And this was before all this other stuff has broken out, all this racial unrest that rightly has broken out.
And I began to think to myself, what's gonna happen to people's investments? What was going to happen to people's jobs? What's going to happen to the economy? What's gonna happen when we finally come back to church? What are we going to expect? And I thought, things are never going to be the same. I mean, I'll just be honest. I was just down in the dumps. So it just so happened that day, believe this or not, not making this up. I'm reading through the Bible and I'm in second Samuel 22. If you get a chance today, go read that, today He'll bless you. Do you know what second Samuel 22 is? Are you ready for this? It's called David's Song of Praise. It's another song that David wrote that didn't even make it into the book of Psalms.
And David had written this song right after he came through this exhausting, horrific time of battling enemies on every front militarily. In other words, he was kind of where we are. He was battling through a tough time in his life, and he had just come over the other side. And so he writes the song. Well, when you read the song, I mean, it's so energetic, it is so uplifting. And listen, so helped me, this is a true. I'm sitting there in my chair reading, and I've had all these negative thoughts and right in the middle of this song, I read this stanza. Listen to what he wrote. "He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He pulled me out of deep water".
I don't know what you're going through. I don't know what you're facing. I don't know the uncertainty that you might feel. I don't know how deep in the pit of despair you are right now. Here's what I will promise you. You may feel like you're going under for the third time. You may feel like you're drowning in a, just an ocean of debt and discouragement and disillusionment and despair over all this going on in our country. But here's what I promise you. If the Lord is your Shepherd, if you'll just reach up your hand, he will reach down and he'll pull you out of those deep waters.
That's how I wanna say something to you. Don't you ever think that beginning your day with the Lord is a waste of time, because it is not. Because this time, when you take time, and you say, you know what? I'm shutting everything down. The phone's going off. I'm turning the computer off. I don't worry about the social world. I'm not worried about social media. I'm gonna lie down in the green pasture of God's word. I'm gonna spend time with the Shepherd. Here's what you'll find. That's when you grow the most. That's when you get the strongest. And you need this type of rest every single day. This works out of the physical world. If you're like me and you exercise and you work out, you know this.
There's two parts to exercise, if you don't do both of them, you won't get the maximum benefit out of exercise. I went to the gym yesterday, and yesterday I was working out with weights, I was doing resistance training. I won't work out today. I'm gonna rest today. If you know anything about working out, you know why? Because there's two parts to getting stronger. You exercise, but you also rest. And they are equal of this total whole process. Because if you wanna build strength and endurance and muscle, when you do resistance training and weight training, you know what's happening? You're breaking your body tissues down, but then when you rest, you're allowing the muscles and the nerves and the bones and connective tissue time to rebuild, and that's where the strength comes.
So, that's the reason why the Shepherd says, before I lead you to work, I'm gonna lead you to rest. Before you go to work, I want you to rest. Because he grows you through that rest. And when you eat the green pastures of his word, here's what happens. You see his power, you hear his promises, you experience his presence and you rest in his peace. So my Shepherd, He guides me to rest. My Shepherd, He grows me through rest. And then here's the best part, are you ready? My Shepherd gives me his rest. My Shepherd gives me his rest. Listen to what he says now, "He leads me beside quiet waters". He leads me to green pastures. He makes me lie down in green pastures, but then he leads me beside quiet waters.
Now, if you've ever been to Israel, I hope one day you'll get to go, you know that they don't have a lot of lush meadows over in Israel, they don't have a very wet climate. As a matter of fact, Israel is a very rocky, dry, hot, barren land. Almost every trip I take when I go to Israel, I go between March and October. You know why? Because that's the dry season. They don't have hardly any rain between March and October. So, the heat scorches the grass, the waterholes dry up, shepherds have to go find sources of water.
Now, the reason why that's so vitally important is because the body of a sheep is 70% water. Sheep need that water to maintain their body metabolism. And when sheep don't get that water, when they get thirsty, they get restless. And I want to tell you the one of the saddest, most helpless things in the world is a thirsty sheep. Because left to themselves, they'll just start wandering off, looking for water. And if they're not led to the right water, they'll drink from polluted holes and dirty streams. Then they pick up parasites and germs that can either make them sick or kill them. And one thing is shepherd knows is, the water that a sheep will drink has to be still and it has to be quiet. Sheep will not drink from a turbulent stream, they'll only drink from steel waters because they're afraid of drowning.
Now, the grass speaks of the Word of God, what is the water speaks of? The water speaks of the Spirit of God. Jesus said, "The Holy Spirit would be a river of living water, that would flow out of the heart of a believer". And he said, "If you ever drink this water," He said, "You will never thirst". And listen, this is what happens, I've experienced it all of my life. When you have that quote and quote, "quiet time" every day of your life. When you say, you know what? I'm gonna take time to get into the green pastures of God's word. I'm gonna let the quiet waters of the Holy Spirit flow over me, speak to me, comfort me, encourage me. Here's what you will find. When everything else is falling apart, and everybody else is losing their mind, you can be at perfect peace. You'll be resting easy in the green pastures and the still water.
See, when sheep lie down in green grass and they get beside the still stream, they're in the height of their quiet time. And when they're peaceful, they're growing, they're getting strength for the journey. That's why Jesus is called the good Shepherd, because He knows how to get us to those quiet waters. He knows how to get us to drink from His Spirit. He knows when we do that, we will be resting easy. He knows we will experience peace that passes all understanding. See, life like a symphony. You know what a symphony is? A symphony is a series of sounds, music, followed by a series of pauses. That's the way life is. Life like a symphony. You gotta have the pauses as well as the music. You gotta have the rest as well as the sound. And God knows, we need that quiet time every day.
When we just get a Bible and maybe a notepad, and we go to a quiet place and we say, "Okay, Lord, I'm gonna feed on the green pasture of your word, I'm going to get beside the still waters of your Spirit". And when you do that, you won't ground the starter until the battery is dead, you won't run the engine until the tank is empty. That's why I wanna encourage you to start doing something on a daily basis. I wanna make this practical. Let me tell you I want to ask you to start doing beginning today. Three things. Number one, I want you just to stop. I want you just to stop. I mean, every earthly activity you're doing, shut everything down, go to that quiet place and then just get alone with God. So just stop.
Second thing. I want you to look. I want you to open up the green grass of this book of God's Word and let the Lord speak to you, and give you strength for the journey that you're on. Then, I want you to listen. I want you just to take time, to hear the voice of His Spirit calm you, and bless you and encourage you. Now, we set up a resource page just to help you out, to help you rest. If you'll just visit crosspointchurch.com/rest. All you got to do, visit crosspointchurch.com/rest. You'll find some practical tips and ways you can stop, you can look, you can listen, you can rest and you can get alone with God. Now, I want to wrap this up, just give me your full attention for just two more minutes. So I was working on this message and just out of the blue, I thought of something that I never thought about before. It's one of my favorite things that Jesus ever said, is one of our favorite passages in the Bible. I never thought about it this way for, listen to what Jesus said.
In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary, burdened," quarantined, staying at home, sick and tired of racism, upset with your fellow man, worried about where your next paycheck is going to come from. You just fill in the blank. He said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened," and what does Jesus say, He'll do, what's this? "And I will give you," say that out loud with me at home "Rest". I will give you rest. Jesus said, if you come to me, here's the first thing I'm gonna give you, is not a to do list, is not an assignment, is not a job, it's not a project, is not even a deadline. He said, the first thing I'll give you. I will give you rest, quiet, peaceful rest.
The first thing that Jesus wants to give you every morning when you get up, is the rest that comes from being in the green pastures of His Word, rest in the still waters of His Spirit. The Catholic priest and theologian, Henri Nouwen, said this, "If we really believe not only that God exists, but that he is actively present in our lives; healing, teaching, and guiding, we need to set aside a time and space to give Him our undivided attention". Nouwen was right. The God who sent his Son to die for your sins and to come back from the grave, wants to give you eternal rest and I'll make a promise. In fact, He made the promise and He keeps it. If you will give this Shepherd, your full attention daily, nothing, not even a pandemic can keep you from resting easy.
Would you bow with me right now for a time and a moment of prayer. And I just wanna ask you a question, can you right now, and I'm talking about spiritually, forget physically, forget emotionally, forget financially, I mean spiritual. Are you at rest? Because, it was a great christian who said the hardest restless, and it will not rest until it finds its rest in God. Let me tell you, if you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you ought to be restless in your heart. There ought to be a restlessness. You ought to know right now, there's something empty. There's a piece of the puzzle of life hat's missing, and it should be and it will be. Because you were born with a hole in your heart. You were born with a vacuum in your life, and only the Son of God who died for you and gave His life for you and came back from the dead, He is the only one that can fill that hole. He is the only one that can take the place of that vacuum.
And if today, you would like to give your life to that Shepherd. If today, you would like to know for the rest of your life, no matter what else is going on in this world, it doesn't matter. You've got a Shepherd, that will guide you to rest. You've got a Shepherd that will grow you through rest. You've got a Shepherd that will give you His rest. Are you ready, for some of you right now? Are you ready to come to this Jesus? You're weary, you're heavy laden, you're at the end of your rope. You may even be suicidal. If you'll come to Jesus, He'll give you the rest that lasts forever. You say, yes, I want that. Then just pray this prayer with me right now, right now just pray this prayer. Say:
Lord Jesus, I believe you are the good Shepherd. I believe you died for my sins. I am a sinner, I need a savior. I am a sheep and I need a shepherd. I believe you are that Savior. I believe you are that Shepherd. I believe God raised you from the dead and you're alive right now. Would you come into my heart. Would you say me. Would you forgive me of all of my sins. I accept your forgiveness. I enter into your rest, for the rest of my life, I'm going to follow you wherever you lead me, because I know at the end of the day, it'll always be to a green pasture and beside a quiet water.
And if you've prayed that prayer with me, if you really prayed it and you mean it, would you do something very simple, very easy. I want you to write now, whatever device you're using. I want you to send a text, okay? I want you to send a text. And I want you to sent it just a "YesJesus". It'll be on your screen right now. Just text, "YesJesus". Do it right now to 31996.
If you made a decision for Christ today, whatever that decision may be just text "YesJesus". If you do that, let's get some information. We want to just follow up with you. We wanna help you in your new walk with the Lord. We wanna help you know that rest that only Jesus can do give. And we wanna love you and be for you all that we can be for you. So you just texted "YesJesus" to 31996. Now, beginning today, let's quit eating of the grass that just gives us indigestion, and drinking some of the water, this kind of makes you sick to your stomach. Get into the green grass of God's Word. Let God pour the water of the Spirit over you. And I promise you, He will give you rest.